(Rain is optional.)
Three hours...
It has been three agonizing hours since the princess started talking to the alien. Button has been sitting in front of the door, staring at a wall for the last three hours.
When Button tried to talk to the guards stationed with him, figuring that they would have something, anything, interesting to say...
They just ignored him!
They just stood there! Choking out his attempts of friendly conversation with dead silence!
The only thing that made noise, other than the bored colt, was the sound of the pouring rain outside...
And the wall clock. With its infernal tick-tock noise.
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
"Are they done yet?" Button asks as he waits outside the room.
"..." The guards don't answer him. At this point he didn't care anymore.
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
"This is boring!" Button whines, "Wait, my video games!...That I left in the room..."
He slams his head against the floor and groans loudly.
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
"I know! Lets play "conversation!" I talk to you, and you talk back! Simple!"
The guards didn't even move.
His eyes twitched.
"Dah!"
He slams his head on the floor, again, and groans loudly, again.
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
*Tick.*
*Tock.*
Button tapped his head on the wall to the rhythm of the wall clock in sheer boredom. his eyes wide and twitching in sync with the clock.
*Tick.* *Twitch!*
*Tock.* *Twitch!*
*Tick.* *Twitch!*
*Tock.* *Twitch!*
"You've left me no choice..." Button whispers.
He sat down, took a deep breath...
And started singing.
"And I~ will always love you~ and I~..." Button's nasal singing drowned out the clock, and infested the entire hallway. He heard his mom listening to the song awhile back, and it's been stuck in his head since. He skipped right to the hook, not remembering the rest.
"And I~ will always love you~! And I~-"
Button's mouth suddenly turned into a zipper and zipped closed. He turned to Bronze, his horn glowed a light brown.
And for the third time that day, he slammed his head on the floor. He didn't groan, for obvious reasons.
*Click*
The group's attention shifted to the hospital door. The guards moved out the way to see a golden aura surround the door. The door opened and Princess Celestia walked out with a neutral expression on her face.
"YAY!"
You could almost see a cloud of dust comically shaped as the excited colt hang in the air where he used to be.
Celestia watched the innocent colt practically fly into the room where the alien rested. Remembering the fuss and tears he shed when the doctors refused to let him stay with the alien.
***
"But- but he doesn't know any of you! What if he wakes up and he gets scared!?"
The doctors* were having none of it.
"Little colt, you're lucky you, or your classmates didn't catch something from the aliens injuries. We don't know if prolonged exposure to him leads to any negative affect to ponies. We're quarantining it until- "
"Him!"
The doctor stopped her lecture in surprise of the young colts outburst, "excuse me?" she asked.
"He is not an it!"
"His gender doesn't matter at this point! You are not going to-"
"Excuse me." said a new voice, the doctor recognized the voice immediately. She disregarded the irritating colt for a second and looked being him to see...
"P-princess Celestia!?" the doctor stammered out in confusion. She bowed so low that her position could be misinterpreted as something else entirely, "may I ask why you are here?"
The princess smiled, "I am here to see that the human is well and stable. I commend you for the concern of the health of your fellow pony, but look behind you."
The doctor looked behind her to see Button sitting next to the door that housed the alien, forbidden to enter by the two guards on duty, with a look of extreme concern. Completely disregarding his favorite passtime/obsession of playing with his JoyBoy at any given opportunity.
"I've been alive for more than 3000 years, seen all the wonders of this world and yet..." Celestia slowly inhaled, then exhaled, "the sight of that little colt, so concerned for an alien being he met less than two days ago, brings a tear to my eye."
The doctor looked back to Celestia for conformation and, true to her words, a single tear trickled down the sun monarchs face as she watched the colt eye the door in concern.
"You have my confirmation that he will not be harmed if he stays with the human. Do you think you could let him in?"
"What about his mother?"
"I have sent a scroll to her explaining the situation. She too believes that the young colt known as Button Mash should be allowed to stay. So, can I have your confirmation?"
The doctor really didn't have a say in the matter. Even though her tone of voice suggested that she had the option to say yes or no...
Who in their right mind would say no to Princess Celestia?
***
Celestia stood in the hallway with her eyes closed. Listening to the rains constant pitter-patter outside. She took another deep intake of breath, before letting the air in her lungs out steadily.
'I've been doing that alot...'
She wanted nothing more than to just stand there and let the, now, calming sound of the rain take her away to a land of silent content. The sound of rain held a special place in her heart as the one thing that could calm her down no matter how angry, how distraught, or how stressed the day has made her.
But the one day she could experience the calming sound, her schedule flanked her from all sides.
The guards, all of them, knew how much their princesses cherished this day. They knew that this silence, how short the duration, was the only time of relaxation for her.
*Poof*
A tiny scroll magically manifested itself in front of the tired monarch, a tiny frown stained her muzzle as she took the scroll in her magical grip and opened it.
Her tiny frown soon inverted into one of the first genuine smiles she has made that day as she read the short, but sweet, contents of the scroll.
Dear Princess Celestia/ Princess Luna,
Due to the unfortunate events that has transpired during Canterlot's "Rainy Day" the weather team has been informed, by an anonymous source, that both of you were forced to work during this.
Therefore, in keeping with the tradition of the "Rainy Day", the downpour will be extended another 24 hours. A General Service Scroll has been sent to all homes in Canterlot informing them of the extension.
Best wishes from the Canterlot Weather Team.
If Celestia wasn't in the company of two guards, she would've jumped for joy after reading this scroll. She felt like a school filly that just found out school had to be canceled for the day.
But, she let herself draw out a happy sigh. She teleported the tiny scroll into her private collection in her quarters.
She turned to the guards with a smile "The doctors say that the human will be ready to leave the hospital at the end of the week. The "Rainy Day" has been extended for another day. When your shift is over, you can return to your families and enjoy your day off."
The guards couldn't help but break formation and smile as they heard the news.
"Yes Princess."
She turned and made her way to exit the hospital, she could have teleported...
But, the rains song could never be rushed. What was the harm in walking to the entrance of the hospital...
Very slowly?
***
He could hear the excited gallop of Button as he made his way into the room. He could feel the once calm air inside the room rapidly moving in the wake of the little colt's excitement.
He could hear the sound of his hooves hitting the wooden chair as the boy climbed his way towards his bed. The same depression that he felt near his right leg when he woke up came again. But this time, the feeling felt slightly stronger, as if the colt suddenly gained weight.
He could practically feel the warmth of Button's smile as he grinned at him. He made some space on his right side by moving his arm some, making a space that Button immediately occupied. A strange fabric brushing up against both his arm and his side as the little brown colt got comfortable.
"So, how was it?" Button asked, looking up to the man with a smile. The passage of time made things slightly darker, preventing Button from seeing the aliens face. The man turned his head to the boy and smiled.
"We had a very nice talk about the history of both our worlds, your princess is very nice Button. I wish we had a royal figure like her back in our world." He said in response to Button's question.
"How...how are they like?"
"Picture Nightmare Moon, with none of the magical power, but with 100 times the cruelty."
Button gulped.
"They don't rule over anything per say. They're just nobles who cannot be touched, no matter what they do."
'Well...one of them was touched. I couldn't stop laughing when I got that report. You know how to make things interesting, Straw-hat.'
"Like that jerk Prince Blue Blood?" Button knew what happened at the gala from Sweetie Belle, it turns out a big mouth runs in the family.
The man chuckled a little, though to Button the laugh sounded a little strange.
"Yes, he came up in our little talk. He has the attitude of one of them, but that's about it."
"Oh...so all you talked about was your worlds?"
"Yes, we did..."
"Well, you had a better time then me!"
"How so?"
"I sat there for three hours, 20 minutes, and 37 seconds!"
The man filched.
"Sorry..." Button said before putting his face in the man's right side in exasperation.
"...That's very precise."
"Whe fudda cluck..." Button's muffled voice responded.
"You...had a clock?"
"Yahhh."
"What about the guards? Didn't they talk to you?"
"Day turd eta stachews..."
"...They turned into statues?"
"Yoaah."
"Button, that's starting to tickle."
"Sori." he said, into his side again. He rolled to the right so that his back was flat on the bed, and sighed.
"So...they turned into statues?"
"They didn't talk, they didn't respond, they just stood there like a couple of Weeping Willows!" Button said, actually keeping his high pitched nasal voice in check.
"Weeping what?"
"It's a refrence-wait..."
Button looked at his eyes for a second, "would they..." he stored that question inside his mind for another day.
"Nevermind..." Button groaned, "that was horrible."
Button didn't say anything after that. They lied there and heard the rain outside. The alien soon fell into a blissful slee-
"This is boring!"
And he's awake...
"*Snort* what?"
"What?" Button asked.
"...Nothing."
He let out a yawn and covered his mouth with his left hand.
"This rain is pretty relaxing."
"Yeah, I do my best when it's raining outside."
"Your best at what?"
"Video games of course! It's like I fall into a third dimension, where nothing matters but me and the screen. No distractions, just...do."
The man could barely hold in his laughter. Tiny snickers leaking out of his mouth every now and then
"...That sounded really cheesy, didn't it?" Button snickered a little as he recalled what he said.
"Third dimension?" The alien says as he finally let out his laughter. Button followed soon followed after.
After their laughter died out, lasting for a good two minutes, Button opened the bag.
The man felt Button's movement, and heard that clicking noise of a button being pulled open.
"What's in the bag?" The alien curiously asked.
"It's my JoyBoy! I figured I would own up to that promise I gave you before I left school, remember?"
The human thought for a second, before remembering the last words he heard from the colt before...
"Yeah, I remember you talking about it but..."
"Yeah?"
"What are "video games?""
"...What?"
"I don't think we have video games in our worl-"
"Wha-!" he began, but caught himself before he became too loud, "you...don't have video games in your world?"
"No...is that bad?"
"Bad?...Bad? That's horrible!" Button wailed, tears starting to form on his eyes, "what kind of cruel world do you live in?"
"Button, a-are you crying-"
His sentence is interrupted by a tearful hug from the emotional unstable colt.
"It's okay...It's okay. I'm here for you..."
"...Uhhh...okay."
Button let go and wiped some tears from his face before taking out his JoyBoy "your in good hooves mister, don't you worry."
"I'll take you word for it..."
"What was that?" the human asked. The noise he heard didn't sound like anything he has ever heard before in his life. The noise sounded...artificial.
"That's the sound the JoyBoy makes when you turn it on. Neat huh?" Button said excitedly as one of his favorite games booted up.
Then music unlike any he has heard before started playing after a short time of silence.
"What...is that...?"
"That, my alien friend, is Megamare BattleRunes 6: Magic Beast Gregar. In my opinion, the best in the series."
The alien couldn't even form words. The music that passed through his ears was so...
"Wow..."
"I know right? Megamare always has the best music."
The alien actually felt a tinge of disappointment when the music ended. But new, amazing sounds, started to reach his ears as Button started the game.
"I'm gonna start a new game, practically did everything already..."
"So, how does this work?"
"Well, there are button's on the side, and you press them with your hooves."
"But Button..."
"Yeah?"
"...I can't see the screen..."
"Oh...never really thought this through..." Button's ears hugged his skull as he slumped.
"It's alright Button..."
"But...you won't be able to play."
"All these new sounds and experiences are good enough for me Button...I've been like this all of my life, you take what you can get."
And so, Button introduced the alien to the wonderful world of video games. He explained the story line, the background characters, everything he could possibly remember.
And that day, the alien learned a valuable lesson...
Button gets extremely emotional when it comes to video games.
"Button...shouldn't you save before you fight this "Blastmare?" You only have ten life left."
Button scoffed, "this is the first boss in the game, I perfect run her all the time. I don't need to save."
And so Button, with ten life left, started battling the crazy pyro known as Blastmare. Button memorized her pattern long ago, she would always move three times, then attack.
He was doing fairly well, countering everyone of her moves-
*Crash!*
A very loud thundering sound from outside made Button jump in surprise. Since all his attention was on the game, his reaction was explosive...
He threw the JoyBoy in the air.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Button saw that Blastmare was preparing a row of fire balls coming from the left, and he wasn't in the right place to dodge it.
Button caught the the JoyBoy and quickly realized that he didn't have time to dodge the incoming fireballs...
But luckily, he stocked up on "Reflects" and had one on him. He pressed the A button and a yellow shield with a green cross in the middle appeared. When the fireballs hit, a purple shock-wave of energy shot out of the shield and hit Blastmare for 60 points of damage...
She only had 50 left.
"Victory!" He happily said as the winning music played, "you have lost Blastmare! Now those poor teachers won't have to-"
Button payed so much attention to actually playing the game, that he didn't notice the little light on the top of the JoyBoy blinking red. For the entire time he had been defeating the forces of evil, he didn't notice one crucial fact...
He forgot to replace the batteries.
The screen suddenly turned black as Button gloated about the defeat of the first boss. The alien heard the sudden stop of sound, and knew something was off...
He put his fingers in his ears...but it didn't help much.
"...Feel the- what!? Wait! No! Nooooooooooooooo! I forgot to change the batteries!"
And he started crying his eyes out.
"Why does mom always have to get the cheap knock off batteries!?"
The alien felt his right side be commandeered, again, by an emotionally distraught Button...
His entire right side was drenched in tears in a matter of seconds.
The guards outside opened the door in utter confusion.
"Nuh ah haa tah stut ah oval agaah! Whiy~!?" Button's pitiful display was muffled by the aliens right side.
He was getting uncomfortably warm on that side, plus Button's constant movement tickled him mercilessly.
The guards just slowly closed the door. Leaving the alien to his tear drenched fate.
"Button?"
"Yahh!?"
"Didn't I tell you to save?"
"Yahh!"
"And what didn't you do?"
"Sahv!"
"And why are you crying so much?"
"Bicuh ah dedet pahk ah spuh puh ah badais!"
"We can ask the nice guards to see if they can find some batteries, alright?" he patted the boy on the head a couple of times in an attempt to calm him down.
"Oka..." was Button's muffled response.
After Button calmed down, they asked the guards if they could find some batteries. Luckily the hospital had battery powered toys for the younger patients. So getting four batteries for Button's JoyBoy wasn't a hassle...
The alien also asked for a new hospital gown, the one he had one had Button's tears all over it.
"Sorry..."
"It's alright Button."
***
Celestia looked at her bedside window. The conversation she had with the human that she found out was named "Fugitora" stirred up some pretty old memories she thought she moved on from.
A tear left her eye as she looked over to the plastic bag that held the gray, lifeless remains of the apple that she showed to the changeling...
She couldn't part with the apple. Like a leech that attached itself to its victim, this apple stayed with her, tormented her, reminded her of her failure.
She could do nothing to stop it, the human didn't know the extent of the gratitude that she had for him. Saving that little foal from being...leeched from.
She, for the second time in her life, failed to protect what her held dear from the evil of that magic. The magic that turned things grey...
The magic that turned them all grey.
The rain poured on, both outside...and inside the castle.
***
"Button, I'm getting pretty tired." The alien said as he yawned for what felt like the fifteenth time today.
"Yeah..." Button yawned as he saved the game and put the JoyBoy away. He took off his saddle bags, that were slightly wet with tears, and dropped them on the floor, "me too..."
The alien closed his eyes, laying back in the bed and letting the rain's sweet lullaby drift him into sleep. Button didn't even move from his place next to him, he just got comfortable and sighed.
"Good night Button..."
"Good night...mister?"
"Yes?'
"I feel pretty stupid for not asking you earlier but...what's your name?"
The man patted Button on the head and brought him closer to his body.
"The name's Fujitora, but...you can call me Issho."
"Isesho? That's a pretty weird name...sorry if I didn't say it right."
"When I told Celestia my name, she butchered it too."
"How'd she say it?"
Issho snickered before he said "Figiteri."
They both shared a laugh before calming down
"Well good night..."
"Good night...Iessho."
He said his name wrong, again. But he didn't mind.